With the explanation that it is looking at ways of leveraging its stable of franchises "through sequels and various development and publishing arrangements," Interplay announced it is restarting its in-house development studio. The money to establish that studio will come from the recent sale of the Fallout franchise to Bethesda Softworks. (Interplay is now licensing the Fallout IP from Bethesda for its upcoming MMOG.) The publisher also said it has brought back Jason Anderson, a lead artist on the original Fallout game and
cofounder of the defunct Troika Games, to serve as creative director for an unannounced MMOG.

Among the projects Interplay has said it wants to develop are sequels to Earthworm Jim, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Descent, and MDK, provided it can find the financing. The Earthworm Jim license was most recently held by Atari, which announced a PlayStation Portable version of the game last year with Shiny as the developer. Atari later sold Shiny to Foundation 9, and the project appears to be dead. Shiny was previously owned by Interplay until the publisher
sold it to Atari
in 2002.

The Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance sequel also has ties to Atari, given that the Infogrames subsidiary currently holds the rights to the Dungeons & Dragons license. Like the rest of the Baldur's Gate series, the Dark Alliance spin-off for consoles was created under the Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms imprint. Interplay signed a multiyear deal for the Baldur's Gate and Icewind Dale licenses
in 2002, but it's unclear when that arrangement was set to expire.

[UPDATE]: An Interplay representative confirmed for GameSpot that the company owns the Dark Alliance name, and can continue to make fantasy role-playing games under that banner so long as they don't use the Dungeons & Dragons license, which includes the Forgotten Realms world and the Baldur's Gate name. As for Earthworm Jim, Interplay owns the property, and Atari merely has a license to make certain handheld games based on the character.

If they do make a new Decent game, they should also update the older Decent games as well. Decent 1 and 2 were fun, but compared to Decent 3, graphicly at least, they seem almost sud-standard. Of course that's because those games are old! They should also make another Freespace game. The first one was awsome! I never was able to puchase the second one, but I've heard it was pretty good as well. I'm hoping Interplay can make a come back. They made some of my favorite games.

Oh wow bring back Kurt again! I loved his outfit so cool! I loved both games a lot but I would hope they could make the game feel alot like the first one. Oh I would wish even for a remake of the original. That would rock!! MDK FTW!

I'll be even more happy if Descent 1, 2, or 3 was ported to a XLA title. It makes a good one since it has a score system with it anyway. The only trouble is the controller and license. (I don't know for sure if the license will be a problem.)

I've been waiting for a Dark Alliance 3 for ages! I didn't know what was happening, so I looked it up tonight. Too bad about everything that's happened. An ending to the story (and a whole other game to play through!) would be great.

If I was Interplay, I wouldn't pursue an MMORPG right now. It's just a trend that everyone is jumping on. I am a small-time developer myself and I think the ideal is to bootstrap projects whenever possible and do what you really believe in. Start small, be passionate, and let the projects become viral 'til they reach critical mass. When you get a little more leverage, then pursue the bigger things. Interplay owns what I feel are some of the most memorable and unique franchises out there. They should definitely pace themselves. Rebuilding one's image is one of the hardest things to do. They made some bad calls. It happens. Personally, I'd love to see MDK and Descent the most. These games were ahead of their time. I can see MDK having a very rich, addicting online multiplayer, with each player possessing some sort of cybernetic or alien assassin with special powers. It can be what Metroid Prime Hunters could have been. As for Descent, this game offered 360 degrees of motion. It was so great for online deathmatch. I loved placing proximity mines and catching people with them as they gave me chase. I also recall being able to fly directly under people without them ever knowing. With the power of computers today, this game can be taken to new levels. I can only imagine what they'd do with it!

Yay! Interplay! I don't have numbers of how many times I have played the games from interplay. I think I have went through Fallout 1 and 2 so many times I still know them, even most of the really funny lines, just like that. oO If they can make a real, and I mean REAL genuine Fallout 3 and/or next Fallout project after that I will be even suggest myself to help make the music for the game, bringing all of the band and others(!), or something! or I will just donate money and.. live happily ever after. Getting to eager, just too exited. x_O

yeah im sure all those games were great but I'm surprised hardly anybody is asking for baldur's gate dark alliance 3 I mean come on that was one of the best video game series of all time I hope they make the third installment A.S.A.P. i will even donate money to help em

It would be great if Interplay and Bethesda went in on a Fallout MMORPG. That way they could explore what happened to the rest of the United States and the world after the war. Can you imagine what Russia's version of a Vault looked like?? PLEASE BRING US MORE FALLOUT !!!!

WOAH!!!!!!!!! O.O Go Interplay!!!! It certainly seems like Interplay is trying to regain its former self, going from being near bankruptcy and going out of business to being back in the green and now restarting its in-house game development studio. Please Interplay, if you read forums like this, BRING BACK DESCENT!!!! Please bring us Descent 4!!!! I totally love Descent, a complete classic franchise and possibly an Earthworm Jim sequel?!?! Awesome!!!! F**in awesome!!!!!

While I'm skeptical on this news, a revival of the Descent series would be just **** awesome. I'm surprised the first two games aren't on Xbox Live arcade or something like that....that seems like a good way to generate funds.

I really feel that in bethesda is going to do a great job with fallout 3, and Interplay just doesn't have the ability to create a decent MMO. So in a few years it'll look like Bethesda saved Fallout from its creators who lost sight of what making games for gamers is all about.

Earthworm Jim is a goog IP, the cartoon was funny, but i'm sure they will cock it up and release a naff 3d platform shooter nonsense, as for Descent, it was good for its day but could it compete with modern shooters? probably if done right.

Earthworm Jim was an icon, please bring the guy back so we can go through some more random cow falling action. He even had a T.V. show back in the days, c'mon! Let alone, it was actually pretty good compared to those certain others.